Plan Worldwide Annual Review 2014

Plan Worldwide Annual Review and Combined Financial Statements

2014

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CONTENTS Plan in 2014

1

Chair’s introduction

2

Chief Executive Officer’s introduction

3

Plan’s young ambassadors

4

About Plan

6

Our strategy

8

Our work in 2014 Our Because I am a Girl campaign

10

Early childhood care and development

12

Disaster risk management

14

Education

16

Child participation

18

Economic security

20

Water and sanitation

22

Child protection

24

Sexual and reproductive health

26

Our funding partners

28

Financial overview

30

Achievements and awards

32

Child protection Throughout all our activities, Plan is committed to ensuring the protection, security, privacy and dignity of all the children we work with. If you have questions or concerns about child protection at Plan, please contact us: child.protection@plan-international.org Cover photo © Héctor Fabio Zamora / El Tiempo / Plan

© Plan

This review sets out Plan’s progress towards our vision and mission between July 2013 and June 2014.

A month after Typhoon Haiyan devastated their community in the Philippines, children enjoy a performance by Plan-partners Clowns Without Borders

PLAN INTERNATIONAL IN 2014 GLOBAL INCOME:

€722 million

8,408 staff in 50 programme countries worked with

86,676 communities

6% growth year-on-year Sponsorship income €354 million Grants income €232 million

Our work areas had a population of

164.9 million people including

81.5 million children GLOBAL SPEND:

€709 million

We have partnerships with

1% growth year-on-year

27,777 local community-based groups

3,878 national and local governments 1,110 non-governmental organisations

We trained 859,450 people including 104,231 education workers 289,437 health workers 272,755 in child protection 135,762 in vocational and business skills plan-international.org 1

© Plan / Niels Busch

CHAIR’S INTRODUCTION I am pleased to enclose the Worldwide Annual Review and Combined Financial Statements for 2013-2014, in this my final year as Chair of the International Board and the Members’ Assembly of Plan International.

A key focus of our attention over the past year has been the Business Operating Model change programme – designed to ensure all parts of Plan work together more efficiently, effectively and transparently. Making changes across such a large organisation is not straightforward and there have been many challenges along the way, but our commitment to making the changes to achieve better outcomes for children is as strong as ever, and we have made significant progress on different aspects of the change programme during the year.

Most notably, we have developed a new global brand, which will illustrate and underpin our One Plan approach. We look forward to launching this in 2015.

I am also pleased to report that members of the Plan family have reached important milestones. Fundación Plan in Colombia and Plan India both met the requirements to attain full management responsibility for their own programmes. The Members’ Assembly also approved the development of new National Organisations in Thailand and Brazil – two countries with huge potential for fundraising as well as a great need for relevant programmes to reach the most marginalised children.

The contributions of two young people representing Plan’s Global Youth Steering Committee at meetings of the Members’ Assembly this year have been met with great support. It is planned that the young people will

continue to attend meetings with full participation rights, as part of the organisation’s priority to emphasise its accountability to children.

Finally, it is with some regret that I conclude my final introduction for the Annual Review. Having accepted the United Nations Secretary-General’s request to lead the UN’s peace-keeping mission in South Sudan, I am stepping down from my position as Plan’s Chair. I have had the opportunity to work with so many talented individuals, and have been truly inspired by Plan’s dedication and commitment to improving the lives of children. I am confident the organisation will continue to go from strength to strength and I will make a strong appeal for continued support for Plan and for the rights of children around the world.

© Plan

Ellen Margrethe Løj Chair, International Board of Directors and Members’ Assembly

Ellen came to Plan International after serving four years in Liberia as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Mission in Liberia and Coordinator of United Nations Operations. With a distinguished career as a diplomat, she has worked within the UN and the Danish government, including representing her country at the Security Council and the EU. 2 plan-international.org

Plan International’s purpose is to help all children realise their full potential. In the past year, we have made good progress in implementing the 2011-2015 global strategy: One Plan, One Goal – Rights and Opportunities for Every Child.

At heart, this strategy addresses two priorities: using all the tools of a modern international non-governmental organisation to create change for children – including enhanced campaigning initiatives and humanitarian intervention – and attracting the resources to support and sustain this diversification.

The prize we strive for is as important as ever. Through our programmes millions of children are exposed to ideas and opportunities that can transform their lives. Supported by thousands of committed volunteers and staff, they are empowered to overcome poverty, violence and discrimination.

Despite progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, many children still do not realise their rights. The largest group of children missing out is girls. One of the most critical tasks of our Because I am a Girl campaign is ensuring girls enjoy their rights to a quality education. In June, Plan youth delegates joined a takeover of the African Union in Addis Ababa (see p11). They called upon governments to raise their domestic education spend, and partly as a result, world donors pledged more than €22 billion in additional funding for education. This is an example of global advocacy in action.

over 500 staff learn more about our child-centred community development approach, which puts children’s rights and their voices at the heart of our work to combat poverty.

Corporate partners play a growing role in our work.

For example, with Accenture Development Partnerships the first steps have been taken to implement digital birth registration using mobile technology; the Banking on Change initiative with Barclays is helping our community savings groups projects reach more young people; and we partner with the Nike Foundation to promote the Girl Declaration and our joint effort to get girls on the post-2015 agenda.

Our grant funding has been increasing for a number of years.

Diversification of funding is good for innovation and improves programme quality, but growth brings its own challenges.

This year we have continued to implement our new Business Operating Model, including plans designed to improve how we recover all our costs from grant donors. This will ensure the right proportion of resources is devoted to serving grant funding and to programmes funded by sponsorship.

Disaster response is also a growing part of Plan’s programmes.

This year we responded to an unprecedented number of very serious emergencies. Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines saw our largest ever response, while new resources helped us deal with mass displacement in South Sudan (see p15).

In Brazil and elsewhere this year, I saw how our programmes create leaders. These young people are confident debaters, they fight for their rights, they create change by amplifying the demands of their communities. We need to support these extraordinary people, so they keep closing the gap between their hopes and the daily reality of their communities’ lives.

Improving programme quality and scaling up successful programmes are strategic priorities for Plan (see p9). In December, we established a team of Global Advisors to lead on programme standards and best practice. During the year, the Plan Academy – our blended training resource – helped

Nigel Chapman Chief Executive Officer

© Plan

© Plan / Steven Wright

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S INTRODUCTION

As Chief Executive Officer, Nigel Chapman leads the Plan International team. In Brazil, he met girls who had expressed their wish to engage in organised sports in the way boys often do. As part of its Because I am a Girl campaign, Plan has set up inter-community soccer tournaments to respond to the girls’ requests. plan-international.org 3

PLAN’S YOUNG AMBASSADORS Helping the voices of young people to be heard is a core priority for Plan’s work. Here are five of the many young Plan volunteers who have spoken out on the international stage this year in support of child rights.

Kamanda, Sierra Leone Young people are at the heart of Plan’s work I am from a small village of three houses near Port Loko in Sierra Leone. Now, I am part of Plan’s Global Youth Advisory Panel as well as the Members’ Assembly – the highest decision-making body of Plan – on which I represent children and young people in West Africa as the first youth delegate from a country office.

Young people are at the heart of Plan’s work. Children are vulnerable, marginalised and sometimes seen as idlers and perpetrators of theft.

I would like to change that negative perception. Plan shows it values young people’s voices by involving us in its decision-making.

Helene, Germany We can achieve so much if young people raise their voices

Helene, 22, travelled to the African Union in Addis Ababa in June to press for increased education spending by world governments.

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Kamanda,19, is the first youth delegate from a Plan programme country to sit on Plan’s global decisionmaking body, the Members’ Assembly.

As part of the African Union Youth Delegation I flew to Addis Ababa in June [2014]. It was unforgettable. I met people from all over Africa and exchanged ideas. A special moment was meeting Christiana from Sierra Leone who shared her story of child marriage with me.

High-quality education is the foundation of every development.

We can achieve so much if young people raise their voice. We are the future: that’s why we need to be asked about what decisions should be taken.

© Plan

© Plan

I grew up in a small village in Germany and went to school in a nearby city, Celle. My family sponsored a child with Plan. I loved reading the sponsors’ magazine and was curious about the lives of other children.

When I was 14 I travelled to India to join my aunt. For the first time in my life I saw poverty and I wanted to improve the situation of children.

I joined a youth group mentioned in the Plan magazine and became involved. This year [2014] I joined a Youth Advisory Panel, an initiative to provide a youth perspective on Plan’s work, including adults but led by two elected youth trustees with full voting rights. I’m one of them.

The Members’ Assembly is a platform that gives us the chance to raise issues and take decisions affecting the whole organisation. We discuss everything: young girls’ pregnancy, poverty, violence against children and youth, and lack of teachers are among the particular issues in Sierra Leone. We address laws that protect young people, and contribute insights to key discussions. It’s an avenue for leadership training and very busy and intense. This year I travelled to Ghana and Germany to share our issues with adults, colleagues and peers. I am also proposing to lobby Plan to provide a scholarship scheme for children and youth.

Mayra, Guatemala I will be able to help other girls in similar situations

Ridwan, Indonesia I want to help other children in Indonesia get birth certificates

For me, the most important thing Plan does is develop the skills of young people. The Because I am a Girl campaign is important and shows girls that access to education can make a positive change. I am now doing my best to obtain the best grades. I dream about obtaining a degree in social work. Then, I will be able to help other girls in similar situations to fight for their dreams.

Mayra, 17, travelled to London to address delegates at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, including the UK Foreign Secretary and the Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, actress Angelina Jolie.

© Plan / Will Boase

Aminah, Uganda I would like to improve the rights of children and youth in Kampala, especially the young girls

Aminah, 21, travelled to UN Habitat’s World Urban Forum in Colombia to demand better urban safety for girls.

I grew up in Bwaise, Kampala, in a two-bedroom house with my eight brothers and sisters, and I first became involved in Plan in 2011. In April I went to the World Urban Forum in Medellin, Colombia. I spoke about the problems girls face in Kampala, including the danger from attackers, bad public transport, poor sanitation and how it floods when it rains.

I would like to improve the rights of children and youth in Kampala, especially the young girls. We are asking the urban authorities for better lighting and public transport, including more secure transport like buses. Representatives of Kampala’s council were at the Forum, and agreed girls needed to be helped. After the Forum I was excited and very happy. Before I joined Plan I was shy and unconfident. I now make beautiful handbags for sale, and I want to start a day camp where we discuss issues facing girls and train in leadership and business.

I live in East Jakarta with my parents. But as they did not know the importance of having a birth certificate when I was born I didn’t have proof of my name, and was bullied. Other children called me “illegitimate”. I dropped out of school and sang on the street for money.

Without a birth certificate, you can be arrested and jailed.

One day I saw children learning to read and write. A man invited me to join them. I became a member of Yayasan Rumah Kita, a partner of Plan Indonesia, and felt safe learning with other children. I wanted to go back to school, but students had to submit a copy of their birth certificates. I was disappointed and felt destined to live on the street. Then, Yayasan Rumah Kita and Plan Indonesia’s Universal Birth Registration project helped me get my birth certificate issued in Jakarta and I continued my education. I am now very happy that my birth was registered. I have proof of my identity, can take national examinations and can claim my rights to health services, education, protection from abuse, job opportunities and travel abroad. It has opened the door for me to become a teacher. But many other children still don’t have birth certificates. I hope to help them so that they can be as proud to be Indonesian as I am.

Ridwan, 15, was a key speaker at the UN’s High Level Panel on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Bangkok in September 2013.

© Plan

When I got involved with Plan, I learnt about the risks of child marriage, and about self-esteem. Plan showed me how to share my ideas with the community and advocate for change. I returned to study.

© Plan

I’m an indigenous girl and in my community, Alta Verapaz, many girls do not continue in education. Parents believe we should do chores and have children. My mother took care of all of us after my father left.

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ABOUT PLAN

Š Plan / Claudio Ocampo

Plan has been working for, and with, children for more than 75 years. In the year under review, we worked in 50 low or middleincome countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas to promote children’s rights and provide better opportunities for millions of children. Our 21 national organisations around the world raise awareness and provide funding and expertise for our programmes.

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We focus on ensuring that the children who are most marginalised receive the education and protection they have a right to, and they are not excluded from services or decision-making. We do this by working in partnership with communities, local and national government and civil society organisations. We are independent, with no religious, political or governmental affiliations.

Children play and learn at an early childhood care and development project in Paraguay where Plan supplies facilities, equipment and training for volunteers

How we work

Our eight programme areas

Plan sees a clear link between fulfilling rights and tackling poverty. The benefits of a good start in life are far-reaching – not just for individuals but for future generations.

Plan believes every young person should have the chance to be an active citizen – shaping the communities around them. That is why our child-centred community development approach sits at the heart of our work. This approach is based on some core values: child rights, inclusion, non-discrimination and participation. It enables young people to set their own priorities: developing strategies, assessing local progress, preparing for disasters, and taking part in decisions that affect their communities. By building young people’s confidence and skills, we can empower them to build the world they want to live in.

1.

Early childhood care and development

2.

Disaster risk management

Page 12

Page 14

3.

Education

4.

Child participation

Page 16

Page 18

5.

Economic security

6.

Water and sanitation

Page 20

Page 22

7.

Child protection

8.

Sexual and reproductive health

Page 24

Page 26

How we are organised and funded Plan is made up of three parts: • Plan International Inc. designs and delivers programmes through regional and country-level offices. Our programme offices are located in the areas where our programmes are implemented, to allow us to respond to the priorities of the local communities.

• Twenty-one national organisations worldwide. In two of those, India and Colombia, we also carry out programming activities as well as fundraising. For a full listing of Plan’s offices, see back cover.

• Plan Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Plan International Inc. It provides central services that support our programmes.

We maintain accountability through our International Board. This is made up of members who are elected by our guiding body – the Members’ Assembly – to ensure that our senior executives run the organisation efficiently and effectively. Children also participate at the decision-making level – for example, through Youth Boards and our Global Youth Steering Committee.

Key features of our work • We work closely with children and their families in the communities where they live.

• We work with communities and government to help them meet their legal obligations towards children under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international agreements.

• We have partnerships with a range of civil society organisations to strengthen their capacity and implement programmes.

• We collaborate with corporations in socially responsible programmes.

• We participate in coalitions and alliances to tackle the underlying causes of poverty through advocacy and campaigns on child rights.

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OUR STRATEGY One Plan, One Goal – Rights and Opportunities for Every Child Our vision Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children realise their full potential, in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity.

We are undertaking a transformative four-year strategic journey to make Plan a flexible and forward-thinking organisation, able to deliver our One Plan, One Goal strategy by June 2015. Our commitments in this strategy are: • We will maximise our reach and impact on children’s lives, particularly those from excluded or marginalised groups.

• We will increase our resources to enable us to maximise reach and impact on children’s lives.

• We will align ourselves to our common programme-led One Goal as a united and effective organisation.

• We will achieve greater impact on child poverty through improved collaboration with others.

Our strategy is underpinned by a programme of organisational change in which we are developing our Business Operating Model and re-engineering our core processes, using technology as the platform for change. Plan will emerge from this change programme as a more efficient, effective and connected organisation, with a continued focus on delivering quality programmes for children and their communities.

On these two pages are key examples of work towards achieving our One Goal strategy.

© Plan / Pattapong Polek

One Plan

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At the core of our strategy is our ambition to operate as One Plan across the globe – a more efficient, effective and collaborative organisation.

One Goal

© Plan

© Plan

© Plan

© Plan

Our One Goal is to reach as many children as possible – particularly those who are excluded or marginalised – with high-quality programmes that deliver long-lasting benefits. Our strategy focuses on areas we believe will have the biggest impact in driving us towards our One Goal.

Tackling exclusion

Improving programme quality

Expanding successful programmes

Extending our influence

We are committed to ensuring our programmes provide all children with equal opportunities in life. For example:

We are making sure our programmes are based on evidence and global standards, and their impact is measured to ensure a lasting effect for children. For example:

We adapt and replicate successful projects locally, regionally and globally. For example:

We are using our experience and expertise to influence decision-makers at the national, regional and international level in order to protect and strengthen children and young people’s rights. For example:

• 71 Plan offices undertook the Gender Strategy Review Process, advancing gender equality across our organisation.

• Plan’s report Outside the Circle analysed approaches to ensure West African children with disabilities have access to education and protection; Include Us! drew on Plan’s global sponsored child data to highlight the education and health needs of children with disabilities.

• Important programmes tackling exclusion include: work in Upper Egypt to change attitudes to harmful traditional practices and protect the rights of girls; communitybased rehabilitation projects in countries such as Togo which promote inclusion of children with disabilities in all community actions; and inclusive education projects, such as those in Bangladesh (see p17)

• A global team of technical programme advisors has been established to lead development of thematic strategies and promote common, global standards and approaches based on best practice examples. Advisors on education, child protection, gender and inclusion, youth employment, savings groups and citizenship and governance are in place.

• Our Plan Academy trained 500 members of staff in child-centred community development last year, and is ready to be rolled out at scale.

• Plan is developing a new Programme Quality Policy that will establish a consistent, organisation-wide approach to quality and accountability.

• Plan’s savings groups have reached over 1 million members worldwide. We are developing this methodology with women and youth in particular (see p21).

• The 18+ Programme to prevent child marriage across Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe is based on evidence from a number of successful projects, such as Plan Bangladesh’s Stop Child Marriage Project and work by Plan Egypt to challenge child marriages.

• Digital Birth Registration (DBR) projects using mobile technologies have started in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Pakistan, where Plan is working closely with governments, UN partners and the private sector. The readiness for DBR in 11 other countries in Asia and Africa is being assessed.

• Following intensive advocacy at the UN in Geneva and New York led by Plan, the first ever resolutions on child marriage were adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council and the General Assembly in autumn 2013.

• Long-term advocacy work led to the new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which allows children to seek justice internationally when they cannot get redress for violations of their rights at national level.

• Plan has been at the forefront of global advocacy to ensure the rights and needs of children relating to birth registration are understood and included in the civil registration and vital statistics plans of governments and UN agencies. plan-international.org 9

OUR BECAUSE I AM A GIRL CAMPAIGN

© Plan / Zack Seckler

On the International Day of the Girl, in five cities around the world we unveiled giant billboards of girls in factories and invited the public to erase them and reveal frescos of girls at school. Actress Freida Pinto led a delegation of girls from Burkina Faso, Egypt and Nepal to mark the day by illuminating New York’s Empire State Building in pink, the Because I am a Girl campaign colour. Worldwide, Plan also turned a series of other famous landmarks pink.

© Plan

Plan delegates on UN stage

© Plan / Gina Nemirofsky

The campaign’s first birthday

© Plan / Zack Seckler

March 2014

© Plan / Zack Seckler

11 October 2013

Four girls from Malawi and Pakistan, supported by Plan, went to the United Nations in New York to campaign for girls’ rights at the 58th Commission on the Status of Women. Plan was calling for the post-Millennium Development Goals framework to include the commitment that by 2030 all girls and boys have equal access to education. “By campaigning, we give girls the confidence to know that things can change,” said Ackissah, 17, from Malawi.

Our campaign aims to support millions of girls to get the education, skills and support they need to transform their lives and the world around them.

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June 2014

June 2014

Youth Advocacy Toolkit launched

10 Days To Act

World Cup: tackling child sexual exploitation

ACHIEVEMENTS

The toolkit, The Education We Want, developed in partnership with A World At School and The Global Education First Initiative was launched to help young people campaign for their right to education. With this toolkit packed full of ideas, inspiration and skills, Plan is encouraging youth to put pressure on governments to invest more in education, and to support Plan’s campaign goal that the 62 million girls out of school globally realise their right to a quality education.

Plan raised over

2,395,000*

hands in support of quality education for girls * By September 2014

© Plan / Ricardo Maciel

© Plan

© Plan

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© Plan

April 2014

Young people from many countries congregated in Ethiopia to launch 10 Days to Act. This initiative called upon governments to raise their domestic spend on education to 20 per cent of overall budgets and promote quality education for all.

Held in partnership with the African Union and the A World At School campaign, it continued from 16-26 June. It ended with a huge win for global education when governments and donors pledged more than €22 billion in additional funding for education at the Global Partnership for Education conference in Brussels.

Sexual violence is the second most reported crime against children in Brazil and Plan’s Children Back in the Game campaign put the spotlight on child sexual exploitation during the FIFA World Cup. “Plan’s goal is to prevent this exploitation,” said Anette Trompeter, director of Plan Brazil. Plan’s message reached 4 million people through cinema, press and in-flight advertising. The campaign also reached millions through social media after ambassador for Plan Germany, and superstar footballer, Mario Götze scored the tournament’s winning goal.

Plan advocacy activities reached nearly and

55 million boys 58 million girls*

Strategic partnerships with government ministries and departments in countries promote girls’ right to education*

* By October 2013

* By October 2013

568

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EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN’S GOAL:

For children to realise their right to a healthy start in life and early learning.

Plan supports a range of programmes that increase communities’ capacity to reduce newborn and maternal mortality, increase child survival and support the healthy development of children. These include initiatives to prevent and combat specific avoidable childhood illnesses.

© Plan

We support parents and communities in parenting programmes that promote good nutrition, early childhood development and early education.

We work with civil society and government organisations to help parents and children access quality primary healthcare and social services.

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Two-year-old Axel plays at one of Plan El Salvador’s Community Circles for Early Childhood Comprehensive Care, known as CAIPIs, near his rural home. “Not only are we committed to bringing our children,” says Axel’s mother Gloribel, “but also to working with them. We learn at the same time as our children.”

ZIMBABWE

Collective happiness helps improve child nutrition

Building better mother and baby care through education

Plan Sri Lanka’s pioneering community-based health promotion programme addresses high levels of undernutrition among children under five in the country. It combines early stimulation and dietary advice with approaches that empower community members, particularly women. The programme including collective feeding, baby rooms and ‘happy child’ diaries and calendars, has helped families provide better nutrition for their children.

“I gave birth to a total of eight children,” says mother Elizabeth Mapondera. “Five of them died through my ignorance.”

Active partnerships between community groups and health authorities have allowed the programme to scale up significantly. The programme has extended to 721 villages from the original 112 villages and the percentage of children who are underweight dropped from 45% to 25%. In addition, the engagement of fathers has improved, with almost 1,000 men actively helping to improve their children’s well-being Mothers who were part of the initial programme have passed knowledge and skills to new mothers across the country, as well as being invited to contribute to the Sri Lankan government’s national action plan on nutrition.

invested in early childhood care and development

289,437

Plan’s Women and Their Children’s Health (WATCH) project aims to influence good childbirth outcomes, using community care groups to encourage sharing of health knowledge by bringing people together.

Each care group consists of 10-15 volunteer health educators and parents who meet with project staff and village health workers fortnightly to talk about health issues. With activities that include group singing, key topics include the prevention of HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and the benefits of immunisation and sanitation. To date, 2,272 care groups have been established, bringing almost 23,000 parents together every two weeks, and reaching 100,000 households.

As well as mobilising positive behaviour, the groups bring the health message to parents in hard-to-reach locations. Funded by Plan Canada, the scheme is implemented with Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Welfare as the main partner.

“Thanks to the care group trainings, my other three children survived,” says Elizabeth.

“The knowledge I now have on my health and children’s well-being is empowering.”

professional and volunteer health workers trained

10,758 © Plan

“We began to be more conscious of the weight of our babies, and initiated activities to improve their weight,” says Kanchanamala, 30, a mother of three in the Moneragala region. “When we fed our babies, we took them outside and showed them the beautiful flowers, trees and told them about birds. We also gave them food we grew in our gardens… We call this feeding the five senses.”

Zimbabwe has a relatively high incidence of maternal and infant mortality. In 2012, maternal deaths stood at 960 per 100,000 live births, while the under-five child mortality rate was 84 per 1,000 live births, according to United Nations figures.

€98,114,000

© Plan

SRI LANKA

health and early childhood care centres constructed or improved

Our global priorities for 2015 • Strengthen programmes supporting the right to a healthy start in life – including activities to promote mother and child health, focusing on survival and growth. The strategy will be two pronged: community-managed health and early childhood care and development programmes; plus partnerships with civil society to advocate for increased quality of government services.

• Identify and document best practice models of health and early childhood care and development interventions within Plan.

• Establish early childhood care and development and mother-child health networks across Plan that will promote and share learning, informed by worldwide best practice.

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DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT For children and young people to grow up safely in resilient communities and realise their right to protection and assistance in emergencies.

“I was happy when school opened again in January.

We have lessons in a tent, but it doesn’t matter,” says Jednel, 10, from Leyte in the Philippines. He and his family survived Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 but his home was destroyed and his school was wrecked. Education in emergencies is a priority for Plan.

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In times of disaster, children are particularly vulnerable.

Separation from family and friends has a significant impact on children’s emotional well-being. Our initial disaster response work focuses on children’s urgent needs, such as food, water, child protection and education – to save lives as well as to help re-establish a sense of security and normality. An important part of this involves developing child-friendly spaces, which help protect children, and aid emotional healing.

We also invest in reducing the risks communities face when disasters occur and enable communities to

reduce the harm that disasters can do. Using a childcentred approach, we help children develop the skills they need to keep themselves safer and to make their communities better prepared and more resilient.

Plan has invested heavily in increasing its capacity and competence to do disaster risk reduction work, as well as to respond to emergencies. In the last year we responded to an unprecedented number of Level 3 emergencies, the United Nations’ highest category of emergency. In March 2014, we began a response to the Ebola outbreak that originated in Guinea.

© Plan / Pieter ten Hoopen

PLAN’S GOAL:

Life-saving help for children displaced by conflict

With 14 million people affected by the deadly Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013, including 40,000 Plan-sponsored children, we mounted our biggest ever emergency response. Supported by appeal funds – and with over 50 years history of working in the Philippines – Plan moved rapidly: prepositioned relief supplies allowed 20,000 people to receive immediate assistance, and once the storm had passed, more than 100 staff from around the world were deployed to work in the Philippines.

In July 2013 South Sudan celebrated the second anniversary of its independence. But political instability and a food crisis have caused significant problems in this young country. In December, after conflict in Jonglei State, Plan‘s new Food and Nutrition Unit (FANU) worked in partnership with the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation to bring much-needed aid to thousands of displaced people, many of them children, facing severe food shortages.

By early December, €2.7 million had been spent providing food, water, shelter, healthcare, protection, sanitation and hygiene for vulnerable families and children. Plan distributed over 126,000 meals, provided over 120,000 people with shelter, and set up mobile health clinics – demonstrating our improved ability to achieve speed and scale during big emergencies

FANU was set up in 2013 to increase Plan’s capacity to prevent and manage food crises and malnutrition and save children’s lives. Since January we have reached 262,716 people in Awerial, South Sudan.

In addition to this urgent activity, Plan focused on protection and education for children. From December, we offered psychosocial support and engaged young people in recovery planning. Our early childhood care and development (ECCD) programming seeks to ensure safe and supportive environments following disasters. Within three months of Haiyan, over 6,000 three- to four-yearolds were benefiting from mobile day care sessions and 262 new ECCD providers had been trained.

“Following the humanitarian crisis, Plan has assisted thousands of displaced children and women,” says Suzanne Brinkmann, Plan’s lead specialist on nutrition in emergencies. Our food programmes prioritise malnourished under-fives, pregnant women and nursing mothers. Globally, malnutrition kills over 3 million children every year; lives that could be saved through timely interventions.

Plan has since augmented this nutritional assistance with a response to cholera, providing 21,300 aqua tabs to purify water and training 90 hygiene promoters. We also distributed emergency seeds and tools to households whose livelihoods have been destroyed by conflict, and trained communities in gardening, farming and fishing.

€91,214,000

invested in disaster work 44 © Plan

SOUTH SUDAN

Global response to world’s worst typhoon

disaster response programmes carried out

40 © Plan

PHILIPPINES

countries mounted child protection in emergencies interventions

Our global priorities for 2015 • Embed measures to improve the scale and quality of our disaster preparedness, risk reduction and emergency response programmes – with an emphasis on child protection, education in emergencies, early childhood care and development, and inclusion of adolescent girls.

• Increase the scope, depth and quality of Plan’s Safe Schools Global Programme, and integrate resilience in Plan programmes.

• Strengthen Plan’s work on food assistance, nutrition and cash-based programmes.

• Expand our influence through representation, collaboration and advocacy.

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EDUCATION

© Plan

“Children are the bamboo shoots of society,” says Reaksa, 12, a volunteer peer educator at her Plan-supported school in Cambodia.

“We had a meeting to form a learning group and children were selected, then after we had training… The project provides learning materials like books, pencils, chalks and a small chalk board for lessons.”

For children and young people to claim and enjoy their right to education.

16 plan-international.org

Education is a human right, and it is also the gateway for children to realise their full potential in societies, and break the cycle of poverty. Many children are excluded from education because of poverty, gender, disability, geographical remoteness, or language or cultural barriers.

We work to promote free, equal access to quality education for all children – from early learning to secondary level – and learning and capacity-building that help young people reach © Plan

PLAN’S GOAL:

their potential. We promote safe and supportive child-friendly learning environments: developing teaching skills and teaching materials, providing life skills and helping communities become more involved in how education is run.

We work with national and local governments to help improve the laws and public policy on education and we take part in local, national and international campaigns to promote quality education for all.

Inclusive education reaches out to all marginalised children

William Agyekum Acquah, Programme Support Manager, Plan Mozambique, says: “In rural Mozambique, most girls drop out of school. It’s due to long distances, safety concerns and cultural resistance among families to send girls to school. Also, while Mozambique’s 16-year war ended in 1992 there’s still an infrastructure gap.

Plan’s education programmes aim to reach the most marginalised boys and girls. In Bangladesh, our School Improvement Plan programme aims to ensure all children are able to achieve their right to education, regardless of religion, caste, ability, gender and location.

“Plan Mozambique has started a school building programme to rectify this situation. We’ve built one and have supported ten more, giving education access to girls and boys in Inhambane province.

Nhancoja primary school, our first project, now has 618 children and 14 teachers. But still, over 1,000 young adults in the region don’t have access to secondary education.

“So Plan Mozambique has worked with the local government, co-funded by Plan Korea, to provide a secondary school in Nhaconja. Already we’ve delivered two classrooms and space for Grade 9 students (14-15 years old).

“There are challenges. We need female teachers, and we need girls to transit from Grade 9 upwards.

As girls are often prepared for marriage or work in the cashew nut industry, we started a four-year project to help girls realise their rights to education.

Lessons were introduced to improve knowledge of sexual and reproductive health, and Plan is also developing after-school vocational training, such as women’s carpentry.”

The programme’s target is to gain 100 per cent enrolment coverage with zero exclusion, and is particularly aimed at boys and girls in the three to ten age group. Using a variety of approaches including community-based early learning, mentoring and community involvement – and making school-going more attractive with colourful classroom decoration, sports and games – it is helping to ensure all boys and girls successfully complete five years of primary schooling.

Plan’s programme reached 70,000 children in 275 primary schools. Our partners on inclusive education include the country’s Directorate of Primary Education, UNICEF and CBM-Nossal, a global organisation working with disabled children.

Sanjay Lal, 7, now goes to primary school in the Dinajpur district as a result of the programme.

“I want to study and be respected”, says Sanjay, from the marginalised Harijan community, traditionally denied access to education and consigned to cleaning jobs. Activities organised

by Plan helped change negative attitudes among pupils, and Sanjay finds the school friendly and accepting: “Now I want to be a doctor when I grow up.”

€82,753,000

invested in education

104,231 © Plan

BANGLADESH

Building better opportunities for girls’ education

professional and volunteer education workers trained

2,454

schools constructed or rehabilitated © Plan

MOZAMBIQUE

Our global priorities for 2015 Share and promote best practice in rights-based, scalable and sustainable education programming across the whole of Plan.

Our overall priorities are: inclusion and gender equality in education; continuous, holistic learning; and community engagement in education governance and accountability. Examples of good practice include: • Plan’s work with children and communities to reduce violence in schools in Togo.

• Inclusive education in Bangladesh aimed at ensuring the most marginalised boys and girls – the bottom 2-6% of the population – are included in education.

• Plan El Salvador’s low-cost, community-based model for early childhood education. plan-international.org 17

CHILD PARTICIPATION

PLAN’S GOAL:

For children and young people to realise their right to participate as citizens.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrines children’s right to participate as citizens, but in many parts of the world their voices go unheard. Plan helps children and young people become aware of their rights. We strengthen their confidence and leadership skills so they can come together to press for positive change, through the use of media and by planning and designing programmes.

© Plan

We also enable children’s and youth organisations to advocate for change, monitor children’s rights and hold government and service providers to account.

18 plan-international.org

“It was difficult to be seen as an alien in my own country. With my official identity card, I can continue studying and apply for a scholarship,” says Lida, 12, one of 320 stateless ethnic people who gained Thai citizenship at an event organised by Plan Thailand.

Text messaging prevents school teacher absenteeism

Plan seeks to strengthen the ability of communities to hold national and local governments to account. To deal with the challenges of poverty and malnutrition in Guatemala, we support communities to form municipal committees, comprising housewives, young volunteers, teachers and leaders, to address the rights of children and encourage pro-child legislation.

Uganda introduced universal children’s education in 1997, but problems remain, such as 20 to 30 per cent of teachers being absent on the average school day. This affects pupils’ school attendance, with average child absence running at 27 per cent across Uganda.

In Santa Catalina La Tinta, the Municipal Committee for Children and Adolescents tackles problems including education and child protection and creates stronger links between parents and children.

“Before we became engaged in this work, children’s issues were practically invisible and people were unaware of the process to make proposals to the authorities at La Tinta,” says Mynor Tut of Plan Guatemala. “Now they have the Municipal Committee for Children and Adolescents, and are better informed on the issues affecting children.”

In coordination with the national government, Plan trains community members in participation, public policy and the rights of children. Groups have now travelled to other regions in Guatemala to exchange ideas with other committees and help develop public policies. “My parents were surprised that I was invited to participate,” says Flavio, 14, the youngest member of his committee in La Tinta. “I met the Mayor and reminded him about the important things that he might forget – like places to play.”

A novel solution was formed by Plan Uganda with support from Plan Finland and funding from global technology company Nokia. Piloted in five schools in the Luwero district, it monitors attendance by inviting pupils to report missing teachers by SMS to each district education authority.

Each school receives two phones. A website supports the collection of responses, and Plan pays via a toll-free code. Once notified, the authorities contact the individual teachers who then have to provide a reason for their absence.

The scheme has almost eliminated teacher absences and reduced pupil absenteeism by almost 80 per cent in the pilot areas. In turn, pupil performance has improved and has led to the formation of 20 child council committees, increasing participation in school governance.

“Introducing it had challenges,” says Margaret Natseli of Plan Uganda. “There were many questions about whether children would misuse the system but they have been very responsible.”

€65,440,000

invested in child participation

74 per cent © Plan

UGANDA

Promoting children’s rights with regional committees

© Plan / Vassil Anastosoff

GUATEMALA

of Plan programme countries ran birth registration projects

48

Plan countries supported youth groups and organisations

Our global priorities for 2015 • Strengthening our work supporting children, parents, teachers and community leaders to engage in school management and to work with education institutions to deliver better services.

• Supporting young people to better protect themselves, and to engage with their families, local institutions and groups to do a better job in protecting girls and boys.

• Influencing the development of the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals framework to ensure young people have roles in monitoring progress of the new goals and holding states to account.

• Advocating for comprehensive, rights-based civil registration and vital statistics systems and promoting the use of digital birth registration.

plan-international.org 19

ECONOMIC SECURITY

PLAN’S GOAL:

For children and young people to realise their right to economic security and access the resources necessary for meaningful employment.

Plan supports young people to make informed choices about their work. We help them access the knowledge, skills and services necessary to secure productive, decent work, and to access financial services. We work to ensure the inclusion of those who are marginalised – especially women – so that they can take action to improve their lives.

© Plan

Working with national and local governments, we advocate for state and community support in times of economic difficulty, to enable children and young people to continue their development, and promote policies that support economic activity. We also work with the private sector and civil society to ensure that economic opportunities are available, sustainable and have the best possible impact on children’s lives.

20 plan-international.org

“For now, I am very hopeful about my future. I would like to become a doctor,” says Jacqueline, 17, from Haiti, who has received training from Plan in crafts, self-esteem and financial literacy. “Medical school is still far off, but, I am very happy to teach other girls in my community how to crochet. Being able to share skills acquired with Plan Haiti’s support with others is very rewarding.”

Savings groups help youth access savings and skills

While Peru has experienced significant economic growth in recent years, many of its remote Andean communities remain extremely poor and marginalised. Plan’s Graduation from Extreme Poverty project aims to ensure extremely poor families achieve economic security by ‘graduating’ from safety-net programmes to sustainable income-earning activities.

Plan’s savings group programmes have reached over one million members in 26 countries. One of those programmes, The Youth Microfinance Project, is introducing young people to financial services in Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone – places where limited access to finance and poor infrastructure create barriers to saving. Funded by the MasterCard Foundation at €3.8 million and supported by Plan Canada, it demonstrates how savings can help young people to become independent and challenge financial exclusion and unemployment.

Each target family receives training in social skills, childcare and health. The assistance also includes: supply of material and cash assets; technical training in a livelihood activity; opening of a savings account in a local microfinance institution; and monitoring of the progress of the incomegenerating activity.

The programme has seen 80 per cent of the 828 families assisted by the programme significantly improve their living conditions, and increase their household incomes by an average of 30 per cent.

Antonia, 36 and a single mother, developed a guinea pig business with the help of the project.

Following advice, she is able to sell at higher prices, gaining profit for reinvestment and helping provide for her children. “I can now sell guinea pigs for 15 soles (€4.00), and larger ones that weigh a kilo, for 20 new soles (€5.50),” she says. “I can buy fruit to help feed my family, we have toothbrushes and I have a clay refrigerator for keeping food cool.”

Groups of 15- to 25-year-olds hold monthly meetings. More than 4,000 groups have been set up in the three West African countries, with each group keeping savings securely, making loans for domestic and small business use at mutually agreed interest rates. So far, the programme has reached 90,000 young people. The groups also deliver financial and life-skills education.

“I heard through my husband that there was a project for young people starting in my neighbourhood,” says Koira Tegui, in Niger. “At the neighbourhood chief’s house, we formed a group of 25 members and I was elected secretary. With my loan and income, I was able to get four sheep and some poultry. I can now pay school fees for my daughter.”

€51,076,000

invested in economic security 135,762 © Plan

WEST AFRICA

Financial independence for the poorest families

people trained in business and vocational skills

64,280 © Plan

PERU

local savings groups supported, reaching 1,142,720 members

Our global priorities for 2015 Share and apply best practice in community-driven, scalable and sustainable savings group programming across the whole of Plan. Elements of this best practice include: • Building capacity of community members and local organisations to create and run groups.

• Using savings groups strategically to mobilise community resources to realise other basic rights in education, health and economic security.

• Employing savings groups as a low-risk ‘starter system’ to initiate youth into using financial services and to promote knowledge and skills around financial literacy, life skills and entrepreneurship.

plan-international.org 21

WATER AND SANITATION PLAN’S GOAL:

For children and young people to realise their right to improved health and well-being through basic sanitation and safe, reliable, affordable drinking water.

Plan is one of the leading proponents of community-led total sanitation (CLTS). This rights-based approach involves encouraging communities – often children and young people – to take the lead in improving their sanitation and champion the benefits. We work alongside government, communities and local groups to ensure that our impact is sustainable in the long term.

Our water and sanitation programming also extends to projects combating Malaria and other vector-borne diseases and to interventions promoting children’s right to health, such as support for menstrual hygiene management.

© Plan / Richard Wainwright

“I missed a lot of school when I had my period. I was fearful of going to school when I had it,” says Maureen, 16, from Uganda. She has now received Plan-supported health training that concentrated on menstrual hygiene management. “I am grateful for the training… All the girls are coming to school every day and our grades are better.”

22 plan-international.org

Youth group innovation helps fight against dengue fever

In Indonesia, 129 million people do not have access to basic sanitation. Over 150,000 underfives contract fatal diarrhoea each year, and the main cause is poor environmental health and household sanitation.

The incidence of the insect-borne infection dengue fever has increased dramatically in El Salvador, and the highest proportion of those affected are children, particularly aged between five to nine years old. In March, 1,266 cases of dengue were positively diagnosed and two deaths confirmed.

Plan’s community-led total sanitation (CLTS) programme, implemented in tandem with the Indonesian Ministry of Health and supported by AusAID and Plan Australia, employs local activism to trigger communities into actions improving their own hygiene. Promotion of ‘five pillars’ of CLTS – which include an end to defecation in public areas, hand-washing with soap, and proper domestic waste management – is radically changing hygiene practices across many villages. In the 11 districts where Plan is working, we have reduced diarrhoea by an average of 35 per cent. Almost 195,000 latrines and 170,000 hand-washing facilities have been built by the communities themselves.

As part of the community-led approach, children check facilities in their home villages, posting stickers on the doors of houses following the five pillars. In Laob village more than 30 children act as ‘sanitation supervisors’. Village head Yura Welhelmina Minanu Bahan has seen the children’s involvement change people’s behaviours. “It is a kind of social sanction,” says Yura. “Doors without stickers from child volunteers will show that the houses are dirty.”

With help from the country’s Ministry of Health, a group of youths formed a health committee in the La Libertad region on the Pacific Coast, and came up with an innovative solution. One member of the committee, Fares, who was 17 years old at the time and has hearing and speech disabilities – saw that small fish ate mosquito larvae and could control mosquito populations.

Together with Plan staff, the group decided to create tanks for fish breeding and distribute fish to families across the area. Education campaigns were taken into schools and a pilot project launched with 900 families in La Libertad.

“They are using the resources available while implementing low-cost sustainable practices that are friendly to the environment and to people’s health,” says Plan’s Programme Manager, Celina Rosales.

The project model has been recognised by the government, which is now interested in extending it across the country. Fares is pleased: “All problems have a solution,” he says.

“The important thing is to find it.”

€42,435,000

invested in water and sanitation 835,207 © Plan

EL SALVADOR

Children bring safe sanitation to rural communities

households supported to improve their sanitation facilities

4,112 © Plan

INDONESIA

water points constructed or improved

Our global priorities for 2015 • Continue to improve water, sanitation and hygiene programmes by integrating themes such as food and nutrition security, economic security and inclusion of people with disabilities. This will allow us to more effectively improve health, well-being and the sustainability of our impact.

• Identify further opportunities for collaborative and joint water, sanitation and hygiene programmes and partnerships, including consortia and public-private partnerships.

• Strengthen the gender focus of our work, for example by extending menstrual hygiene management programming.

• Continue to investigate how to sustain hygiene behaviour change following community-led total sanitation interventions.

plan-international.org 23

CHILD PROTECTION

PLAN’S GOAL:

All children and young people realise their right to protection from abuse, neglect, exploitation and any other form of violence.

© Plan / Seydou Dolo

Plan adopts a comprehensive, systems approach to child protection that aims to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children and young people. We apply this approach in our development programming and in our emergency responses. Plan works to mobilise and strengthen the capacities of children, families and communities. We also influence and support governments and state agencies in order to create sustainable systems that ensure a safe environment for all children.

24 plan-international.org

“I still remember the day I was cut, aged seven. Now, thanks to Plan, my sisters have been saved,” says Mary*, 13, from Mali, where female genital mutilation (FGM) is practised.

“My village leader signed an agreement to end FGM in the community. Plan have been coming to our village and teaching us about the health problems FGM causes and we no longer want to be doing it. FGM will be an old story here now.” * Name changed for child protection

Combating child trafficking with technology

Nathalia Ngende, Violence Against Children Programme Manager, says: “This project began as a new concept in child and youth participation for advocacy and policy change.

It has led to the creation of National Children and Youth Advisory Boards on violence against children in all 12 Plan countries in West Africa. We’ve created an entire structure of youth participation.

Children in Bangladesh, Nepal and India can be vulnerable to cross-border trafficking, particularly those from marginalised religious and ethnic groups, such as Dalits or ‘untouchables’.

“Each Board has 15 to 40 members, including boys and girls. They attend meetings and debates, and raise awareness with a range of tools: flyers, comics, dance, social media. It’s important to mix fun with advocacy.

“The key issues are child labour and trafficking, female genital mutilation and child marriage. Young people are participating to end these practices.

Our Forum on Violence Against Children in Accra, Ghana, last September revealed newer concerns including child begging in Senegal, children forced to work in convents in Benin and ‘breast ironing’ in Cameroon – a practice driven by similar traditions to female genital mutilation.

“The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais, called the project “a role model” and recommends taking it worldwide.

Importantly, it’s very popular with young people.

There were 500 youth delegates planned at first, but now there are over 5,600.”

Plan launched the web-based reporting system Missing Child Alert (MCA) to help report, track, rescue and repatriate children who experience trafficking from Bangladesh and Nepal to India.

More widely, the MCA programme includes community awareness raising and the formation and training of child protection groups. It also supports the rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficked victims by providing shelter, counselling and life-skills training.

Plan’s project partners include the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Interpol, the Central Bureau of Investigation (India), and the South Asia Coordinating Group on Action against Violence Against Women and Children. This range of expertise helps ensure a coordinated response.

Julekha Khtoon was intercepted at the India-Nepal border. Just 14 years old, she had been trafficked by a couple who told her she could meet her mother, a migrant worker in Delhi, and find work herself.

But as a result of MCA, she was returned to Nepal and trained in sewing to give her economic independence. “If I had crossed the border I wonder where I would be now,” says Julekha.

€39,051,000 invested in child protection

58,008 © Plan

NEPAL

Empowering young people to eradicate child violence

© Plan / Vassil Anastasov

WEST AFRICA

members of staff of partner organisations trained

214,747

community members trained

Our global priorities for 2015 • Roll out the new Global Strategy for Child Protection Programming (20152020), Protection from Violence is Every Child’s Right, across Plan and share it widely with peer organisations.

• Provide Plan with global best practice guidelines on community-based child protection mechanisms – for example, building on work identifying best practices by Plan in Eastern and Southern Africa where there has been success in raising awareness of child protection issues at community and government levels.

• Build a stronger community of practice on child protection programming across all Plan offices by creating a network to exchange success stories and learn from failures, using data from Plan programmes and from other organisations.

plan-international.org 25

Š Plan / Katrijn Van Giel

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

PLAN’S GOAL:

Children and adolescents realise their right to sexual and reproductive health and make a safe and healthy transition to adulthood.

26 plan-international.org

Plan supports universal access to evidence-based, gender-sensitive and age-appropriate sexual education. We foster access to equitable and confidential youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services, including HIV prevention, care and treatment. We work with families, communities and governments to create an environment that protects children and adolescents from discrimination, coercion and bodily harm, and upholds and promotes the right of adolescents to act on and advocate for their own sexual and reproductive health.

Protecting infants from HIV/AIDS infection

Nicole Campos, Programme Coordinator, Plan Brazil, says: “In Maranhão’s capital, Sao Luis, young people are taking part in theatre to entertain and inform their peers about sexual and reproductive health.

It’s part of our Young Health Programme, which aims to address a range of key health issues for adolescents, including risk behaviours, such as the harmful use of alcohol and drugs, that can lead to non-communicable diseases. The programme is a partnership between AstraZeneca, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Plan.

In the northwest region of Cameroon, 7.2% of women of child-bearing age are HIV positive.

Antenatal care and the prevention of HIV transmission to infants are perceived as women’s issues and male involvement is considered unacceptable. This reduces take-up of these vital medical services. Plan designed an intervention to support men’s participation in antenatal care and the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission.

“At four key schools, groups of ten adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 were given the task of making props, including puppets, and writing scripts on four different subjects: contraception, sexual abuse, pregnancy and abortion, and sexual diversity and health.

“Technical help was given to the groups, but each group wrote startling plays, which were also performed in a public theatre in Sao Luis. One girl said as a result of her involvement she taught her mother how to use a condom, and as a boy in the audience told me: ‘I now know what the schools don’t tell us. It was funny, interesting and beautiful.’

“It remains an issue that boys are less interested, but Plan has shown health issues can engage schoolchildren. Our project, only in São Luís, has reached more than 9,000 adolescents to date, and our Young Health Programme has reached more than 70,000 people.”

Following initial awareness-raising activities alongside working with local women’s community organisations, 25 men’s clubs were created in the Wum and Meiganga health districts. The clubs promote antenatal care and HIV testing for pregnant women. As a result, 75% of men in the clubs have accompanied their wives or partners on antenatal visits.

“I have learned from the men’s club activities that a man is not supposed to abandon everything with the wife,” says men’s club member Che Thomas, “but should rather support her in everything including accompanying her for antenatal care services.”

Since the beginning of the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV project, 8,991 pregnant women in Meiganga and Wum have been screened for HIV; among them 364 tested HIV positive and are having treatment. This led to 297 children being born HIV-free from treated HIV-positive women.

€21,249,000 invested in sexual and reproductive health

32 countries © Plan

CAMEROON

Youth drama spreads health education message

© Plan / Lynn Photos

BRAZIL

run HIV/Aids prevention and care programmes

72 per cent

of programme countries supported sex and life-skills education

Our global priorities for 2015 • Identify the best and most promising sexual and reproductive health programmes and practices within Plan that embody our child-centred community development approach.

• Consult with technical and policy staff worldwide across Plan to inform the development of Plan’s sexual and reproductive health policy guidelines.

• Build and support a thriving sexual and reproductive health community of practice across Plan for learning and sharing.

plan-international.org 27

28 plan-international.org

Š Plan

Jimmy Westerheim visiting Winifred’s community in Uganda

OUR FUNDING PARTNERS Our vision can be achieved even more effectively through working with others. For Plan, this means working closely in partnership with our sponsors, with other development organisations and with the public and the private sectors to combine our expertise and learning.

Sponsorship

Grant funding

Corporate partnerships

Sponsorship changes lives

Girl Power grants get results

Lessons from a fruitful relationship

Since its founding, Plan has used child sponsorship as a centrepiece in its programming to help children. Today, 1.4 million children are enrolled in sponsorship, and many people have been sponsoring children for a decade or more.

Plan Netherlands leads a programme uniting six Dutch nongovernmental organisations and supported by the Dutch national government.

Learning is crucial for breaking the cycle of poverty, and Plan invests more in education than any other area. The Credit Suisse Foundation shares our belief in education.

The Girl Power: Promoting Equal Rights and Opportunities for Girls and Young Women programme is set up to fight injustices girls and young women face daily in Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

In May 2014, Credit Suisse selected Plan UK as one of two key partners in a new three-year project, Financial Education for Girls. The programme targets 100,000 girls in Brazil, China, India and Rwanda and aims to improve girls’ financial education and life skills, enabling them to remain in school longer.

The benefits of sponsorship run in both directions: besides the obvious and intended benefits to children, their families and their communities from Plan-funded interventions, the connections made between sponsor and child can help those more fortunate experience the rewards of helping others.

Jimmy Westerheim, 27, a sponsor from Norway, explains: “When I was younger, my parents sponsored a boy in the Dominican Republic. It helped me realise most people weren’t as lucky as I was, and in 2010, I began my own sponsorship relationship with Plan with a child called Clement, from Zambia.

“I went to Zambia, and met Clement, and also gave his school some football equipment.

I expected it to be grim, but the children I met were happy and appreciative. This changed my life. I later saved up to go to Uganda where I also sponsored a girl called Winifred, now 17, and visited the local office in Kampala. Back in Norway last year I went on the national TV show Idol Gives Back, and spoke about my sponsorship. It’s great to able to help make changes in children’s lives.”

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted the programme €52 million for five years to 2015 to help Plan and its partners to ensure the full participation of girls and young women in society, politics and the economy.

In 2013, the programme reached 900,000 girls and 450,000 boys with services like life-skills training, child helplines, scholarships and socio-legal protection services; other initiatives included awareness-raising and sensitisation activities with 350,000 households and 8,850 traditional leaders, and training for 6,000 government frontline staff including police, teachers and health workers.

One Girl Power project in Bolivia trained girls from the poorest parts of the Municipality of Yunchará to make a weekly radio programme addressing issues that affect them. “The girls were shy,” says Tomasita, 15, one of the show’s hosts. “Now they listen to the radio and they participate; they know and demand their rights… we had an interview with a public prosecutor in Yunchará and we have shared the girls’ demands with him. He listened to us and we are getting results.”

The funding builds on a previous partnership between Plan and Credit Suisse, which made a significant impact on education in Liberia, Uganda, Guatemala and Cambodia, and helped some 19,000 children access better quality education.

Together we have transformed schools, established Child Councils and trained teachers.

“We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with Plan in a programme that focuses on the critically important issue of financial education,” says Dr Manuel Rybach, Global Head of Corporate Citizenship and Foundations, Credit Suisse. “With Plan’s experience in delivering life-skills training, combined with a new financial education component, we aim to build the capabilities of young people to participate fully in their communities and take advantage of opportunities to enhance their life chances.”

plan-international.org 29

FINANCIAL OVERVIEW INCOME BY COUNTRY

INCOME BY SOURCE 2013

2014

€679M TOTAL

€722M TOTAL

Other income €126m

Grants €184m

Sponsorship €369m

30 plan-international.org

Other income €136m

Grants €232m

Sponsorship €354m

In the year to 30 June 2014, Plan’s worldwide income was €722 million, 6% more than the previous year.

Income included €31 million relating to the relief, protection and education response to Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in November 2013.

The majority of Plan’s income, 60%, is from individual donations, either through child sponsorship, which provided €354 million of funding in the year, or from the €79 million in contributions to Plan’s Because I am a Girl campaign, disaster appeals or other fundraising. Grants and other cash contributions from institutional and corporate donors amounted to €259 million or 36% of total income, a 27% increase over the previous year. This included €27 million from corporate partnerships. Gifts in kind, primarily in the form of food distributions and medicines, representing 4% of income, provided €30 million of resources in 2014, 14% lower than the level in 2013.

Plan had a surplus for the year of €13 million. This is the net effect of unspent funds, primarily restricted funds, which will be spent or distributed over the duration of a multi-year project, offset by the planned spending of an investment reserve of €4 million and the €8 million effect of adverse currency movements.

This follows a deficit of €25 million in 2013, when there was also use of the investment reserve and currency losses.

Germany Canada

2013

2014

€000

€000

117,527

131,181

130,538

117,334

UK

65,184

75,652

USA

58,774

73,735

Norway

53,324

53,021

Netherlands

47,911

48,937

Australia

41,220

41,621

Sweden

35,224

35,035

Japan

26,662

23,921

Finland

16,330

16,766

France

12,344

14,174

Belgium

12,754

13,632

Colombia

8,987

13,285

Spain

12,592

12,425

Ireland

9,008

12,240

Korea

8,826

10,180

Denmark

6,105

7,173

India

3,465

5,566

Hong Kong

4,294

5,147

Switzerland

4,258

3,449

600

472

Other

2,846

6,731

Total

678,773

721,678

Italy

EXPENDITURE BY AREA

EXPENDITURE BY REGION 2013

2014

€697M TOTAL

€700M TOTAL

Europe and North America €198m

Africa €256m

Central and South America €105m Asia €138m

Europe and North America €206m

Africa €243m

Central and South America €96m Asia €155m

Plan’s worldwide expenditure including foreign exchange losses was €709 million, and €700 million excluding foreign exchange losses. This represents a €5 million increase in expenditure. The gap between income growth of €43 million and expenditure growth of €5 million is due to the spending of reserves in 2013 when expenditure exceeded income and to a Global Fund donation in 2014 of €9 million which has been used to purchase malaria bed nets which will be distributed and therefore recognised in expenditure in 2015, but is included in income in 2014.

Excluding funds applied to foreign exchange gains and losses, Plan uses 77% (2013 restated: 76%) of the money it receives on programme expenditure, 14% (2013 restated: 16%) on fundraising expenditure and 9% (2013: 8%) on other operating costs including expenditure relating to trading activities to support charitable funds. As Plan’s worldwide results represent the aggregation of Plan International, Inc and the National Organisations, these ratios do not necessarily apply to any of the individual entities.

Africa accounts for 35% of expenditure in 2014, Asia 22%, Central and South America 14% and Europe and North America 29%. Asia accounts for a higher proportion of expenditure than the previous year (2013: 20%) due to the Typhoon Haiyan response, which was Plan’s largest emergency response to date.

2013

2014

Restated Early childhood care and development

€000

€000

113,631

98,114

Sexual and reproductive health

16,203

21,249

Education

87,555

82,753

Water and sanitation

45,417

42,435

Economic security

41,598

51,076

Protection

37,979

39,051

Participate as citizens

68,887

65,440

Disaster risk management

70,083

91,214

7,146

5,717

Development education

38,715

38,901

Programme expenditure

Sponsorship communications

527,214

535,950

Fundraising costs

110,113

100,476

Other operating costs

54,409

59,256

691,736

695,682

5,004

4,647

696,740

700,329

6,545

8,171

703,285

708,500

Trading expenditure Total expenditure before foreign exchange Net losses on foreign exchange Total expenditure

The prior year comparative percentages are restated because Plan adopted a revised categorisation of sponsorship costs in 2014, reflecting the separate development education and fundraising aspects and 2013 results have been represented on the same basis.

Do you want more information?

You can get more financial information from our Combined Financial Statements. A copy is in the pocket at the back of this review or available on our website at plan-international.org/annualreview plan-international.org 31

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION FOR OUR WORK Asia

Pacific Islands

Two of Plan’s young campaigners received Youth Courage Awards for Education from the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown: 18-year-old Bangladeshi Keshob Roy is president of a children’s organisation formed and supported by Plan, and works to keep girls in school and out of child marriages; Urmila Chaudhary, who spent 12 years as a child domestic slave, is a central figure in Plan’s campaign to abolish the Kamalari system of child servitude in Nepal.

Plan Australia’s 4CA child-centred climate change adaptation programme, implemented in six Pacific island countries, was one of three winners at the inaugural Pacific Innovation and Leadership Awards for Resilience. The award is an initiative of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

El Salvador Plan El Salvador was among finalists in the Gloria de Kriete Foundation annual awards. Plan’s project supporting a youth cooperative distributing honey won a special prize recognising its innovative approach and received €39,000 for development.

Guatemala The 2014 Ulrich Wickert Special Award for Children’s Rights recognised the achievements of Plan Guatemala’s youth media project Radio Pocolá. Girls and boys from indigenous communities talk to hundreds of families via the radio station.

Indonesia Plan Indonesia’s community-led total sanitation projects won the Indonesian government’s 2013 MDG Award. The award recognised work in Indonesia since 2010 providing access to decent sanitation and triggering communities to build their own sanitation facilities without subsidies.

International Plan’s short film I’ll Take It From Here scooped the UNICEF Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The film about a girl’s right to education was shot in Malawi with a non-professional, local cast. It has been translated into at least 12 different languages, and shown in 25 countries.

Mali

© Plan

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda presented Plan Uganda with an award naming it the best child development organisation in the country. The Uganda Responsible Investment Award recognised Plan’s contribution towards attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. President Museveni singled Plan out as a “responsible partner”.

Liberia The Inquirer newspaper named Plan as International NGO of the Year 2013. The paper praised Plan’s work supporting the development and well-being of war-affected children in 77 communities across the country.

32 plan-international.org

Plan Thailand’s banking project won the Prudential Chairman’s Challenge, part of the company’s initiative encouraging its staff to volunteer on charity projects. Some 180 Prudential volunteers worked with school children to enhance their financial knowledge. Over three years the project will help 4,500 girls and boys gain financial skills and knowledge.

Mali’s Minister of Promotion of Women, Children and Families presented an award to Plan Mali recognising its impact in reducing female genital mutilation. Representatives from 45 Malian villages that have abandoned the practice as a result of Plan’s programmes were at the ceremony.

© Plan

Cambodia’s Ministry of Education recognised Plan’s work on education for rural children in the country’s most populated province, Kampong Cham. The gold medal was given to Plan by the Secretary of State for Education, Im Koch, for providing “badly needed education services and facilities for the locality”.

© Plan

Cambodia

Thailand

West Africa Plan won the West Africa Roll Back Malaria Network award for non-governmental organisations. In our 12 West Africa programme countries, we have helped distribute nearly 19 million mosquito nets and train 28,000 community activists and 3,800 community health workers. Roll Back Malaria is a global partnership of over 500 organisations and governments.

Š Plan

plan-international.org 33

OUR OFFICES Programme Countries Bangladesh Benin Bolivia Brazil Burkina Faso Cambodia Cameroon China Colombia Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Ethiopia Ghana Guatemala Guinea

Guinea-Bissau Haiti Honduras India Indonesia Kenya Laos Liberia Malawi Mali Mozambique Myanmar Nepal Nicaragua Niger Nigeria* Pakistan

National Organisations Paraguay Peru Philippines Rwanda Senegal Sierra Leone Sri Lanka South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Uganda Vietnam Zambia Zimbabwe

Australia Belgium Canada Colombia Denmark Finland France

Germany Hong Kong India Ireland Italy Japan Korea

Liaison Offices European Union Liaison Office, Brussels, Belgium Liaison Office to the United Nations, New York, USA

Netherlands Norway Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States

Regional Offices Liaison and Advocacy Office to the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

Americas Asia Eastern and Southern Africa West Africa

Pan African Liaison Office, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

* As of November 2014

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